Round 2!!

Hi there! Thanks for taking a break from your unsuccessful quest to figure out how in the world The Donald continues his tear through the primaries to catch up on what's going on with our little family! 

It's been a nice but quiet few months for us. We enjoyed Christmas and New Year's festivities and the Broncos won the Super Bowl!! 

Around Valentine's Day, I had the privilege to get all dressed up and take my little girl to a Daddy Daughter Ball. It was such a fun night together. Bailey wore a beautiful red dress and was so excited to present herself to me as she walked down the stairs. Her face lit up as I told her how beautiful she looked and she was so excited as I put on her little corsage. Even at 4, her heart so badly wants to hear such words from her father. If I didn't already know it, it is so clear how important my words are and how powerful they can be in speaking life into her. 

Here's a picture of us from the night...

We had a nice dinner, enjoyed dancing at the ball, and ended the night with a frozen yogurt dessert. Such a fun night and precious memory we'll share. 

On the adoption front, things seemed to slow down quite a bit leading up to Christmas and into mid-January. Last week we realized that it had been 2+ weeks since we had even had an opportunity to show our profile book to birth moms, which was quite very much not the normal since we went active with our agency. 

Jenny recognized that we weren't praying with the confidence and urgency that we ought to be praying. So she wrote 5 big, bold prayer requests and we prayed those with much more intentionality. God heard those prayers!! 

Isn't that how it goes? God asks us to talk to Him and He's just waiting to hear our requests so He can show His love and power. Yet so often, it's my last resort when it should be my top priority. 

Last week our profile book was shown to 4 birth moms. And today we were informed that a birth mom chose us...we've been matched again!! 

It's a girl and she is due in late March! We are so excited to love on a new baby and her precious birth mother. We are (cautiously) optimistic that this will be the child we've been praying for but know that there is always a possibility that our birth mother will choose to parent her child. We are praying for God's will to be done either way, and that we will be able to show our birth mom His incredible love in the process.

Please do not mention anything to Bailey about this as we are trying to protect her heart in case this doesn't work out. She knows that she will be a big sister when we adopt again and we know that she'll fall hard for whichever baby God has chosen for us.

God is so good! Thank you for walking beside us, especially in prayer. Here are our prayer requests for this next stage of our adoption process: 

1) For our expectant mother - for clarity in her decisions and continued good health.

2) For her precious baby - for continued growth and development.

3) For our relationship with our birth mother - one of the reasons we chose our agency is because they emphasize loving birth families BIG and WELL. Pray that we will be able to do that - with our thoughts, our words and our prayers. We will likely have an initial call with her next week. Please pray for a very positive, encouraging call. 

4) For Bailey - that God will prepare her heart to be a big sister and that she will have a smooth transition from only to oldest child.

5) For our finances - we are trusting that God will continue to provide the finances we need to complete this adoption, just as He did with Bailey's. Thank you to everyone who has supported us thus far.

6) For Jenny and I - that God will be glorified in the way we engage with all the different people involved in this process. Pray that we will have peace, no matter what happens. Pray that we will not let the failed match make us overly cautious or worried about the days ahead. Pray that we are sensitive to Bailey's needs so that she's ready for the changes coming her way. 

Guess it's time to get the nursery finished...lots of USC-themed and Pinterest projects happening over in there!